Today was the annual traning trip for the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium’s whale watch docent naturalist program.

I was worried that the trip would be canceled for bad weather, after all, we have huge swells hitting our coast from storms far out in the Pacific, but today was remarkably calm. Even though it was raining when I left the house, I called the landing to get confirmation that things were a go. And they were. It was still drizzly as we left on the Voyager but the water was glassy and the swells were rather tame.

Unlike a regular whale watching trip, this one was led by no less than a half-dozen naturalists including: Diana McIntyre, Bernardo Alps, Diane Alps, Alisa Schulman-Janiger and John Olguin. Though the whales eluded us (it’s still early in the season) we did find two pods of long-beaked common dolphins. The first was a large one with probably 800 individuals feeding on some herring (or some other small silvery fish) along with a large variety of gulls and pelicans with the occasional sea lion thrown in.

But you really just wanna see photos, right? Click for larger versions:

Rocky Point as seen from the boat.

Common Dolphin pod.

Long-beaked common dolphin.

Possibly the same long-beaked common dolphin.

Palos Verdes Peninsula as seen from Santa Monica Bay

A Brown Pelican in breeding plumage. 

This was the tree on Christmas Eve. It looks rather different now as all the presents are either distributed or opened.

(Okay, I photoshopped that hat on her. There’s no way she’s sit there so accomodatingly with a real one. Click on the photo for larger lameness.)

I got lots of candy (shock!) and I’m thrilled with all of it. My father even sent me pounds and pounds (I’m not kidding) of various kinds of Wilbur which means I’ll be making candy very soon because there’s no way I’m eating three pounds of unsweetened baking chocolate. I also got a home photo studio setup for taking, so look forward to both fresh candy and copious photos of it all! My mother also gave The Man and me a wonderful gift this year as she adopted a dozen kids at a rescue mission and got Christmas gifts for all of them - what a wonderful way to spread the joy of the season around.

In other news the waves are still high here in Southern California and they’re calling for rain. Even if the skies are clear, the large swells may keep the boat at the dock so no whalewatching. My hopes are high for Friday though. 

I passed my whalewatching naturalist test!

(None of you doubted me, did you?)

So, I get to go out on Monday for the training trip (out of Redondo Beach on the Voyager) and then on my first trip as a veteran whalewatch naturalist on Friday the 30th through Spirit Cruises at Ports ‘o Call.

You can now expect many photos of cetaceans and other sea-related things.

So The Man is on his way out to buy a Chistmas tree for us.

One problem.

I can’t find the decorations. I have two boxes, maybe you’ve seen them around? One is a plastic Rubbermaid bin with a piece of white fabric gaffer’s tape on it that says CHRISTMAS on it? There’s another file box, too that also has the word Christmas scrawled in black with as Sharpie marker? Anyone see those around the house?

It’s been three years since we’ve been home, so the last time we had a tree was before the kitchen remodel. I’ve looked everywhere they could be ... but the list of places I don’t think they are but could be is much longer. Sigh. Maybe we’re getting new ornaments this year.

UPDATE: I found one of them. The Rubbermaid tub. Apparently that “marking them” thing works much better if you do it on both ends ... or at least stack the tub so that the label is facing out. 

Marine Biology Mystery Solved: Function of “Unicorn” Whale’s 8-foot Tooth Discovered

After hundreds of years of guessing, Harvard Medical School announced what they believe to be the purpose of the Narwhal’s tusk.

The Narwhal is a small toothed whale (member of the Odoncete suborder) that lives in the Arctic and North Atlantic. Males grow to be about 15 feet and weigh about 3,500 pounds and females slightly smaller at 13 feet and a slimmer 2,000 pounds. They are unique in the world of cetaceans in that they have a single tusk, which is a modified tooth grows in corkscrew fashion from their left jaw. Many are up to nine feet long, which means that they may be two thirds as long as their body. Unlike most Acrtic whales, the Narwhal does not migrate south but they do move around in larger groups within the Arctic Ocean from the shores to more open ocean as ice floes cover areas.

Nweeia has discovered that the narwhal’s tooth has hydrodynamic sensor capabilities. Ten million tiny nerve connections tunnel their way from the central nerve of the narwhal tusk to its outer surface. Though seemingly rigid and hard, the tusk is like a membrane with an extremely sensitive surface, capable of detecting changes in water temperature, pressure, and particle gradients. Because these whales can detect particle gradients in water, they are capable of discerning the salinity of the water, which could help them survive in their Arctic ice environment. It also allows the whales to detect water particles characteristic of the fish that constitute their diet. There is no comparison in nature and certainly none more unique in tooth form, expression, and functional adaptation.

This is a totally cool adaptation as far as I’m concerned. Much like a lizard or snake uses their tongue to taste the air, this discovery about the sensory sensitivity of the Narwhal’s tooth must makes their adaption to their habitat all the more admirable.

UPDATE: Amazingly detailed article from the NY Times now up!

I took off from work about 30 minutes early and headed over to Sabor y Cultura for my final session.

I had very little clue how I was goign to bring this thing to a close within 5,000 words, but I think part of the lesson of NaNoWriMo is giving up on those plans that one might have at the beginning of the month. I might have though that I was going to write a road trip, a dark comedy about a poor downtrodden fellow who never gets a break.

What I ended up writing is a novel that never quite gets there. I throw a lot of crap at Daniel and he seems to bear it well, but not as well as I thought he would (what do I know?). But that’s okay, it provides drama.

So, what was supposed to be a story of Daniel, who loses his family in a series of terrible tragedies that he seems unable to prevent or mitigate yet he maintains a sort of loose life affirming demeanor. He works as a sort of character/production assistant on a wee-hours-of-the-morning TV show. The morning that he loses his latest apartment in a house fire (and manages to save the landlady from certain death) he ends up getting the assignment that will promote him to the next level. He’s going to be the remote producer for a “road trip” where he is to pick up a family (brother from St. Louis and parents from South Carolina), document their trip and then return them to Pittsburgh for a reunion/re-enactment for a Christmas tree cutting.

What ends up happening is that Daniel hasn’t borne these tragedies as well as I thought he would. He’s much moodier than I’d thought he’d be, but luckily the cameraman I sent him on this trip with also happens to have gotten copious therapy for his traumas during the first Gulf war. He guides Daniel through accepting his inability to move past his inability to change anything. Blah, blah, blah. Anyway, so I abandoned the road trip when they got to St. Louis, had them turn around and come back. Happy ending.

time......running tally....words...words/minute
6:00 PM.......45,101..........0.......0
6:15 PM.......45,772........671......44.73
6:30 PM.......46,427........655......43.67
6:45 PM.......47,069........642......42.80
7:00 PM.......47,634........565......37.67
7:15 PM.......48,224........590......39.33
7:30 PM.......48,835........611......40.73
7:45 PM.......49,516........681......45.40
8:00 PM.......50,137........621......41.40
8:15 PM.......50,758........621......41.40
8:27 PM.......51,178........420......35.00

25 hours 29 minutes of writing
33.47 words per minute average
5,118 words per session
51,178 words total

Anyway, it’s all done. My worst novel to date.